DIY: Embroidered Neon Sweater

8th February 2018

This is a super quick way to update a plain sweater. This particular design works best with a chunky knit jumper in a plain stitch like stockingette or rib stitches (I think this one is fishermans rib but knitters out there will be able to correct me.) Using the very pronounced stitch as a guide, and simply highlighting it by embroidering over the top of it with your chosen yarn. Simple as! You can use leftover yarn from your stash so it’s a great scrab buster too!

I used a fab neon yarn from Minerva crafts which you can find here. To start off your embellishment, thread your yarn onto a yarn needle. Secure the yarn to the wrong side of your sweater. Pass your yarn up through to the RS of the sweater at the top left of the V stitch you want to embellish, then insert into the point at the bottom of the V stitch…..and back up again at the top right of your V stitch.

Then insert the needle again into the centre point at the base of your V. Bring the yarn back up again at the top left of the next V stitch you want to embellish…and so on…

Continue until you are happy with your design and level of embellishment. I’m firmly in the less is more camp so I went for a really simple design using lines of V stitches in varying lengths…

You don’t have to just stick to Vs of course. Essentially, in a plain knitted sweater like this you have a very even grid of stitches and you can use this as a guide for any kind of embroidered repeating pattern. The X motif is just another example of many you could do. But think for instance of the variety of sashiko patterns that you could adapt for use with this technique?

Here’s the guts of mine!!

Et voila!! A simple update on a plain winter sweater for next to nothing and in hardly any time at all!

This tutorial first appeared in Simply Sewing Magazine under license in 2017. I write a regular piece for Simply Sewing every month. To keep up with the latest tutorials you can subscribe here 🙂 Modelled images courtesy of Immediate Media Ltd.